A complete control and electronics solution for the SWARDMAN ELECTRA mower
The company Swardman, s.r.o. is a leading company in the field of production and sale of electric spindle mowers. For the development of the electronics of the new Swardman Electra model, it was necessary to go back to the roots and lay out a complete new electronics and control unit, which will simplify and speed up production, while ensuring precise and safe operation of the mower.
Identification of the problem
In order to be able to design an optimal solution that is fully functional, safe and will simplify the assembly process while minimizing the error rate, we first went through the production processes at Swardman and thoroughly familiarized ourselves with the current issues of the product.
The suggestion of solution:
After thorough planning, we designed an ideal solution for 2 electrical devices - the main control unit and the control unit.
The main control unit provides switching of the battery supply voltage, linear control of travel, ensures connection with the control unit and provides the possibility to power the mower from two different types of batteries.
Thanks to the linear control of the travel, it is possible to easily adjust the speeds as the user is comfortable.
The control unit automatically adjusts the speed of rotation of the spindle at any driving speed so that we ensure a perfect cut of the grass surface, which only occurs at a specific speed of rotation.
The control unit provides data acquisition from the control levers, enables the setting of driving modes and parameters of the mower with the help of five buttons, and at the same time provides signaling of modes and parameters with five signaling diodes. All controls are at your fingertips and the controls themselves are simple and intuitive.
What have we created?
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Design of the principle diagram of functional blocks
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Electronic schematic design
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Selection of suitable components based on parameters (including price)
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Printed circuit board (DPS) design
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Firmware development
By optimizing and simplifying the fitting process, we accelerated the assembly process from the original 48 minutes to 22 minutes, speeding up assembly by 55%.
